“TikTok Is My Life and Snapchat Is My Ventricle”: A Mixed-Methods Study on the Role of Online Communication Tools for Friendships in Early Adolescents

Abstract

Early adolescents are frequent users of online communication tools (OCTs). Yet, we have limited knowledge about how OCTs influence this population and their friendships. We sought opinions of 938 Austrian early adolescents on the role of OCTs for their friendships via a questionnaire and 207 focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the focus groups. We found that despite the emergence of some online-specific aggression, OCTs are perceived as beneficial for friendships. Early adolescents use online spaces naturally and differentiate little between online and offline communication. Only when it comes to high levels of intimacy, early adolescents also need an offline setting to fulfill their communication need. Online communication tools, especially newer forms such as online gaming, can surpass a mere communicative function and provide a space for building and maintaining friendships. In the future, OCTs should be considered as a tool to facilitate positive development in early adolescents.

Peer Facilitators as Core Co-developers of an Online Peer Encouragement Network (OPEN2chat) for Austrian Adolescents

“…Adolescents nowadays are digital natives and used to navigating through an online space. Yet, intimate topics are usually discussed in an offline environment ( 44 ). Due to missing facial cues in an anonymous online conversation, it is harder to know another person's feelings ( 45 ).…”

Socialización y consumos mediáticos en un aula de Educación Primaria (Asturias, España)

“…Además, también se diseñó una imagen para cada asamblea (Mittmann et al, 2021), que se mostraba a través de la pizarra digital durante toda la sesión y que servía como generadora de diálogo. En el caso de YouTube y TikTok, la imagen incluía el logotipo de estas redes sociales, palabras relacionadas con ella (ej.…”

“…Por eso en los últimos años, las investigaciones orientadas a analizar la influencia de las TRIC han estado centradas fundamentalmente en personas jóvenes y adolescentes, aumentando recientemente el interés por explorar el impacto de las redes sociales y de los usos y consumos en red por parte de la población en edad infantil (Mittmann et al, 2021). Se pueden citar estudios centrados en YouTube, donde se ahonda en el uso e influencias de esta red social y de los y las youtubers en el proceso de socialización entre adolescentes y en su construcción identitaria (Aran-Ramspott et al, 2018;Balleys et al, 2020;Fedele et al, 2018), otros en los que se estudian las narrativas y tipos de vídeos compartidos por adolescentes desde una perspectiva de género o las oportunidades que puede ofrecer esta red social para la prevención de la violencia de género en este grupo de edad (Villacampa et al, 2020).…”

Adolescents’ Algorithmic Resistance to Short Video APP’s Recommendation: The Dual Mediating Role of Resistance Willingness and Resistance Intention

“…Through active participatory use and negotiation to exploit the existing rules of the algorithm, users as actors try to change the original logic of algorithmic output ( Clark, 2020 ),violate the “original” meanings set by the algorithm and finally create diverse meanings to meet their usage purposes ( Eslami et al, 2016 ; Ettlinger, 2018 ; Velkova and Kaun, 2021 ). Driven by this concept, a number of studies have explored diverse forms of algorithmic resistance among social media users, such as attempting to domesticate algorithms using social media content recommendation rules ( Sujon et al, 2018 ; Leong, 2020 ; Siles et al, 2020 ); utilizing algorithmic ranking rules to make the content one wants to display weight up to become “visible” ( Velkova and Kaun, 2021 ); “teasing” and “confusing” the TikTok algorithm by changing personal preference settings to achieve “unexpected” recommendation visibility effects ( Cotter, 2019 ), fighting against recommendation algorithms’ discrimination toward marginalized groups by frequently adjusting identity privilege settings ( Mittmann et al, 2021 ), and so on. Nevertheless, the above-mentioned studies on algorithmic resistance still have some shortcomings, which leave some space for expansion in this study.…”

“…What also should be mentioned is that adolescents are now a hugely vital group for using social media, particularly short video apps like TikTok and Kuaishou ( Bossen and Kottasz, 2020 ; Basch et al, 2021 ; Mittmann et al, 2021 ), and the recommendation algorithms of these apps are becoming digital infrastructure that shapes their everyday practices ( Shin et al, 2021 ), making it a common situation that adolescents are encountering algorithms. Although several studies have examined various limitations of algorithmic hegemony on the cognitive and usage dimensions of adolescent social media users from a critical perspective ( Bucher, 2012 ), for example, critically discussing various restrictions and manipulations of platform algorithms on the content visibility and access of them ( Rieder et al, 2018 ; Petre et al, 2019 ; Bandy and Diakopoulos, 2021 ), they did not give enough attention to the demonstration of agency in adolescent-algorithm interactions, implying that ‘agency is often neglected in the emerging discussion of the consequences of algorithmic culture’ ( Velkova and Kaun, 2021 : 524), and that adolescents’ active interactions with algorithms in their perception and everyday use are somewhat overlooked ( Shin et al, 2020 ).…”